The Little Gunboat that Could of USS Merrimack is a gargantuan, socially progressive nation, ruled by Captain Franklin Buchanan with a fair hand, and notable for its public floggings, suspicion of poets, and devotion to social welfare. The compassionate, democratic population of 13.84 billion USS Merrimackians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The large government juggles the competing demands of Healthcare, Welfare, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Hampton Roads. The average income tax rate is 42.8%, but much higher for the wealthy.

The USS Merrimackian economy, worth 645 trillion Confederate Dollars a year, is quite specialized and led by the Tourism industry, with significant contributions from Information Technology, Furniture Restoration, and Book Publishing. State-owned companies are common. Average income is 46,604 Confederate Dollars, and distributed extremely evenly, with little difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The navy plans patrols according to how many pubs nearby ports have, pharmaceutical companies emphatically promise that "your pills are in the mail" rather than admit any supply shortfall, cricket farmers use magnifying glasses to fit every member of their herd with tiny tracking tags, and refugees from other nations are flocking to USS Merrimack's border. Crime is totally unknown. USS Merrimack's national animal is the Cottonbird, which soars majestically through the nation's famously clear skies.

USS Merrimack is ranked 84,375^th in the world and 215^th in The Wellspring for Largest Furniture Restoration Industry, scoring 3,204.46 on the Spitz-Pollish Productivity Index.